Chapter2

#Chapter2

Eve moves across the bare concrete floor towards the door, the hunger gnawing at her belly for it has been three days since she last saw the man she calls Father, five days since the cats had last had a kill. She steps out into the sunshine and looks across at the building where she is not allowed, where she last saw her creator.

Romeo and Juliet join her, the big cats purr as they crowd against her, their nostrils testing the breeze as it blows through the leaves of a large tree inside her compound…she raises her head to catch the wind and recoils at the message the wind brings…the scent of death and decay hanging strongly in the air.

The cries from the compound that houses the big apes are agitated, shrill and she can hear the Manrilla whom Father calls Hercules barking out in his rage and anger at the world. As his bark cuts through the air both Ligers turn towards the source…low growls emanating from deep within their chests, both cats on alert for the danger the sound represents. Eve looks across at the shed, her eyes locked on the door and then relax when she sees it is still shut…for now, the Manrilla poses no threat, he is still secure inside. The sound of bars being attacked comes to her and she shudders for she fears the one knows as Hercules, his rage and his blood lust unsettle her.

Turning her attention back through the fence towards the far off building that house her classroom, Father’s office and the forbidden section she watches and waits for the man to appear. Her instinct tells her that something is not right; everything is not as it should be… the noise from the generator had died two nights ago, never before had Father allowed her to go hungry, even when he punished her, he never allowed hunger to enter her belly.

With her belly growling, the apprehension that the noxious scent brought with it Eve moves across to the gate of her compound…tests it but finds it securely locked. In her minds-eye, she sees Father using something he calls a key to open the lock…a key he takes from his pocket when he collects her for her lessons and when he returns her to the safety of her compound. She shakes the gate…her large hands filled with unnatural strength have no effect on the lock… all she achieves is setting the Manrilla off again…his screams of rage filling her head.

Instinct for survival kicks in and Eve knows that she needs to get out of the compound, she needs to get the Lingers out or else they will die from starvation, she needs to find Father. Moving along the fence she looks for a weak spot that will allow her to break out, then finding nothing she returns to the two cats…looking around she sees that the tree is close enough to the fence. Grunting encouragement to the cats she pulls herself up into the branches of the tree, moving along a large branch until she is over the barrier, and then with the agility of a chimpanzee she drops to the open ground on the other side.

The rancid stench in the air, the scent that reeks of death and decay fills her with fear and cautiously she assumes her erect posture and moves towards the buildings…the low growls of hunger from the Ligers spur her on. She approaches the building, fear of the unknown now running up and down her spine and tests the air for Father's scent…it lingers in the air coming from the door that opens into the classroom…the room where Father taught her to sign, where she was praised and chastised, where she learned to work on pictographs on a machine called a computer, where she started to learn to read and write.

Slowly the handle turns and Eve steps across the threshold, the light is dim inside but her eyesight adjusts quickly… the room is empty. Grunting out a greeting to the unseen man, she moves towards the office… a scraping noise comes from the open door and beyond it, she sees the desk…papers lie scattered on the floor from the storm…the glass in the window pane broken…the frame gently moving back and forth in the breeze but the one she seeks is not there…his jacket hangs from a hook…the smell of the one who loves her still Ligers. She reaches out and touches the jacket, bringing the fabric to her face, inhaling his scent…covering the foulness that is filtering towards her from the closed door at the end of a dark passage…a suffocating stench that makes her gag in her throat…a putrid odour that makes her fear what she will find, a fetid smell that has driven all thoughts of food from her mind.

***

A large rat captures the Manrilla’s attention as its long sinewy tail moves slowly back and forth, its nostrils testing the air for danger as it enters the creature's lair through a hole in the corrugated iron wall. Hercules freezes in the dark corner, his wicked eyes fixed on the rodent as it moves between the steel bars of his prison… he gathers his haunches slowly under him and like lightning strikes, grabbing the rat in one large hand, his fangs tearing the head from the body and while the corpse still kicked in its death throng, its blood flecking the floor the Manrilla had his first taste of food in days.

Nothing remains of the visitor, even the blood droplets have been licked up. Hercules lifts his dog shaped head, his nostrils working as he searches for the scent of the hated man thing and then he catches Eve’s scent and a paroxysm of fury fills his body…a need for she is female. He lifts his head to the ceiling and barks…calling her…demanding that she comes to him. His keen hearing brings only the cries of other primates…not the one he wants and in a fit of rage, he attacks the steel bars…shaking the concrete foundation…the crack widens and the bars move just a fraction.

***

With the forbidden door facing her at the end of the dark passage Eve moves closer, she is now anxious and scared. The strong sour smell of rotting meat assaults her nostrils and a curious buzzing sound comes to her ears. She cocks her head and listens…the sound is strange, something she has never heard before. Tentatively she reaches out towards the handle and then pulls back as if she had touched a hot iron…the voice of Ernst Libowitz and the memory of the whip flash through her mind.

/"Never open this door Eve…if you do the pain you will feel will be far more than the whip. I do this to protect you; to keep you from harm…what lies behind that door will mean your death./"

She looks back along the passage towards the light, back towards safety, her mind in a whirl.

/"Is the world past the door, will the people kill me because they fear what they don’t understand?/"

Backpedalling, her eyes still riveted on the door, Eve moves back to the safety of the light, and then she remembers Romeo and Juliet…she need keys…she needs Father…they need food. Digging deep into herself, she finds the courage and moves back to the door…the buzzing is louder, the smell sharper. She reaches out and turns the handle, steps back as the door swings open, recoiling in horror as the full force of the stench of decay hits her full in the face.

***

Stumbling back from the open door and gagging at the overpowering smell that assaults her nostrils, making her eyes water. Eve drops to all fours and flees from the unknown. In her haste to get away, she knocks the desk top computer off the desk, the sound of the screen shattering on the floor spurs her on and in a blind panic she bolts from the building, the mid-day sun blinding her and bringing her to a halt.

The two Ligers see her and greet her with deep coughs, once again sending the Manrilla into a frenzy of screeches, which carries to the other primates housed in the compound and her ears are filled with a cacophony of agitated hungry primates and felines.

Eve moves past the safety of her own compound towards the iron shed that houses the Manrilla…maybe Father is with him. The bolt in the steel door is in place, the clasp of the lock is in place. She pauses outside, her mind troubled and then Hercules catches her alluring scent, sending him once more into an absolute frenzy, throwing his huge body against the steel bars, his cries of lust filled with rage impact on her and with determination she turns from the building, moving back towards the forbidden door.

Her fear of what the Manrilla would do to her even greater than the fear of the unknown.

***

Moving once more into the dim interior of the classroom, she pauses, all her senses alert and then stealthily moves into the passage…the stench stronger now, the buzzing sound louder with the door open. Eve reaches the door, and gingerly reaches out a large hand, pushing it open further, allowing the light from behind her to fall on the floor. The first thing she sees is a mass of swollen black flies swarming around an ape secured to a chair with wires running from the open portion of its skull.

With a gasp of horror, she retreats hastily…her mind flashes back to pictures Father had shown her of the cruelty of man towards animals, and yet here behind the forbidden door is what he warned her about.

/"Is this the world Father spoke of? Where is Father?/"

Edging forward once again, Eve steps over the threshold, her keen eyes taking in as much detail as possible and there to her horror, beneath a blanket of flies is the grotesquely bloated body of the one she’s searching for. Father’s head and neck are now a greenish-blue color, fluids leak from his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears. His eyes have been pushed out of their sockets by the pressure and his tongue has been forced out of his mouth. Eve gags and turns from the horror that confronts her…a mass of maggots already feeding on her creator.

Stumbling from the room, she fights the desire to vomit, her stomach churning at the sight now burnt into her brain…filled with horror and fear she retreats to the classroom, her mind unable to accept and comprehend what she has just seen.